


The Life and Death of Gabriel Gray

by Morgane (smilla840)



Category: Heroes - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Gen but can be interpreted either way, Written during season 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-19
Updated: 2012-07-19
Packaged: 2017-11-10 07:29:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/463745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smilla840/pseuds/Morgane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snapshots of Gabriel’s life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Life and Death of Gabriel Gray

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: mentions of domestic abuse and torture (Sylar is present in the fic after all)

1.

Gabriel is six years old and there is a scream in the living room. He huddles under his bed, hands firmly clasped over his ears to shut out the sounds and the world. His bottom lip is still throbbing from the week before and there are bruises under his sweater. But that’s not his mother’s fault. He was clumsy and broke one of her favourite snowballs and he didn’t do it on purpose, honest. But she dragged him to Church so that he’d ask God to forgive him, and she was walking too fast and he tripped on the way back.

A door slams and he flinches, trying to make himself as small as possible. Then the door of his bedroom opens and he keeps his eyes and ears firmly shut because he doesn’t want to see, doesn’t want to. Please don’t make him.

"Gabriel..."

It’s his mom and he opens his eyes. She is kneeling next to the bed, peering at him with the eye that isn’t swollen shut, and Gabriel wants to cry. She gestures for him and he crawls out of his hiding place slowly, trying to make sure his dad is really gone. Gabriel loves his dad but sometimes he drinks from a bottle that makes him smell funny afterwards and he hurts his mom. Gabriel hides in his room when that happens.

His mom pulls him on her lap, hugging him a little too tightly, and it hurts when she involuntarily presses on the healing bruises but he doesn’t say anything.

"You’re my special boy," she croons, rocking back and forth. "Aren’t you Gabriel? Yes, very special. You’ll make something of yourself, won’t you? I know you will, because you’re special."

Gabriel wrinkles his nose. He doesn’t think he wants to be special – it sounds like something the other boys at school would tease him about. But if it makes his mom happy, then he’ll try his best. Maybe then his parents won’t fight so much. Maybe then his mom will get better, and maybe his dad won’t drink so much. And maybe they’ll all be happy.

 

2.

Gabriel is fifteen and his father is dead. He stands next to his mother in front of the grave as the priest drones on and on. He isn’t really listening and all he’ll remember afterwards is an endless litany of words without meaning that leaves him befuddled.

He is numb and he knows he is supposed to feel _something_ but he just can’t figure out what. There were times when he wished his father would just go away, when he drank too much and hit his mom and there was nothing Gabriel could do to protect her. But it wasn’t always like that and Gabriel’s happiest memories are of his father taking him to his shop and teaching him about watches.

Those were the times when he could forget about his mother’s ramblings. Being special didn’t matter, because his father didn’t care about that. His father cared about watches and a job well done, and Gabriel made him proud. It was so simple then. And watches are easy. Not like people. Gabriel looks inside them and instantly sees what makes them tick. He’ll know what’s wrong and how to fix it. It’s his gift, and even if his mother thinks it’s nothing special, Gabriel privately thinks that it’s enough.

Or it was, anyway. What’s going to happen now?

His mother clings to him and whispers that everything will be alright because he is special and it’s God’s Will that he do great things.

Gabriel nods weakly to keep her quiet and tries to ignore the part of him that insists it’d be nice.

 

3\. 

Gabriel is twenty-eight and Chandra Suresh walks into his store. He tells him he’s special, and turns Gabriel’s world upside-down. 

He never quite believed his mother, and besides – most of the time – he doesn’t mind being normal. He’s used to it and deep down he fears that he is nothing out of the ordinary. He just wants to be left alone and fixes watches. You can’t be hurt if you don’t expect anything, and it’s dangerous to get your hopes up too high. 

But despite his best efforts to shut it out, there is still a part of him that yearns for more. And Suresh is a doctor – he has to know what he is talking about, right? 

So for the first time, Gabriel stops pretending and _believes_. He throws himself in Suresh’s research and lets him do whatever test he wants to do. The older man rambles about his theory, about how special Gabriel is, and Gabriel thrives. Until the day he tells him that he isn’t special at all.

That day Gabriel fades to the background and that other part of him comes to the forefront and names itself Sylar. He’s always been there, since the first time Gabriel’s mother told him he was special, and while Gabriel had wishfully contemplated the possibility and dismissed it, Sylar believed every word.

He _is_ special, and he’ll show them all.

 

4.

Gabriel is twenty-nine – not that it matters much considering he hasn’t been Gabriel for almost four months now – and Mohinder Suresh stands before him, full of earnestness and enthusiasm. He tells him how special he is and Sylar wants to scoff. He knows that already. But Mohinder isn’t talking to him, not exactly. He is talking to Zane Taylor and so Sylar allows some of Gabriel’s wide eyed innocence to come to through.

What he hadn’t expected was that Mohinder would coax Gabriel into actually believing him, Gabriel who doesn’t think being normal is insulting and who just wants everybody to be happy – and if that takes being special, well, why not?

It makes Gabriel grow stronger, more confident, his utter faith in the stranger blinding him to the fact that Mohinder is just like his father and wouldn’t hesitate to discard him were he to expire his usefulness.

Sylar is greatly annoyed.

Because he knows that if one day Mohinder addresses Gabriel by his name and not as Zane he’ll lose control of the situation. And he can’t allow that. Gabriel is _his_ , his to control and play with, and Mohinder can’t have him. Oh, he knows. Knows how the man looks at him sometimes. Gabriel is pretty clueless of course, his own infatuation an almost childlike crush. But Sylar can’t allow it to progress further.

So he makes sure that Mohinder will never be inclined to help Gabriel.

 

A couple of days later he finds out that he’s thoroughfully succeeded – torture will do that to someone. Too bad he now wishes it wasn’t the case. But no matter how much Gabriel pleads Mohinder won’t help and something inside him aches.

One hour later he doesn’t care anymore. 

His mother is dead and Gabriel is gone.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted at my livejournal.


End file.
